With all the rapid development Maddie is undergoing right now, there’s one thing that still hasn’t changed – she sure is Daddy’s big helper. It doesn’t matter what kind of store or restaurant we roll into, you have to know right up front that Maddie is Grabby! And with her added mobility and confidence, the stakes are rising every day.

Today we stood ready two storm two different retail establishments: Baby’s r Us and the Sports Authority. Maddie was juiced and ready to go. I led off our initial assault armed with a wide variety of distractions including some edible wagon wheels, a squeaking penguin and some bagel pieces. How long these would protect me was anyone’s guess.

There is no straying off course when Maddie is at the helm. You have to be on point, know what you want and get out before realizes you aren’t taking care of business. Case in point, I had instruction to find a back up for Maddie’s sleep bear named Barry.

I was waffling between a wide variety of possibilities and the baby could smell my hesitation a mile away. She started stretching wildly out of the shopping cart reaching for some unknown item in shiny plastic. When I placed her back in her spot, the protests started ratcheting up. The clock was ticking and the fabric on these replacement bears just wasn’t right. If I wanted to make it to Sports Authority, I had to check out now.

I hit the check out line and offered some bagel bits in one swift motion. In our world, bagels have amazing calming properties that no other food seems to possess. We wheeled our way to the sports store, as the bagel supply grew ever smaller. By the time we walked into our next stop, we were fresh out of bagels. (Time to step it up!)

I had to sort through several items to get the one I needed when I noticed that Maddie was doing some shopping of her own. She lifted a Gatorade towel off the shelf and into the cart with her. After a quick inspection, I saw that Grabby had actually made a good choice here. I let her hold on to her latest conquest while we executed another lightning checkout.

This will really come in handy – Nice choice

This is only the second time that Maddie has grabbed something that we ended up taking home. The question now becomes whether or not this practice is setting a bad precedent?